Transfer week and a lot of administration work!

This week there was kinda a lot of administration so I am sorry if it is a little boring... but there were still miracles this week so here it is!
Monday (2.22.16)

We were able to go over to Mauigoa family! It was great to be with them. They have a son who is preparing to go on a mission and is 17 years old. We are excited for him and want to help him get ready. We were a bit late to their house because pretty much all day we were with Elder Cook at his Eye Doctor appointment. We are so happy because his eye is doing much better. It was okay that we used our missionary time at his appointment because it was important and I know as we sacrifice we will receive blessings:) Anyway, we were able to teach about the Mauigoa's the First Vision lesson and WOW it is just so powerful when we teach and testify about the Restoration of the Gospel! If you are EVER feeling a little low on the spirit just read some of Joseph Smith History.  Especially verses 17-19:) They are amazing!!!!


Tuesday (2.23.16)
Today was transfer day and everything was going super smoothly until about 9:00 am.  Ha ha! That is just my optimismic attitude which is always kicking in:) As a missionary you just expect good things to happen and MOST of the time they do! But this time the train from the Bush that was coming into the city got canceled and replaced by buses so it threw everything off... haha! But missionaries are good at improvising and we went to our backup plan.  Elder Eilers was transferring to Wantirna so we got him to the office around 10:00 am and after that it was really just a waiting game so that we could get the other Elder who was coming from the Bush District and take him to his new area.  

Saying goodbye to Elder Eilers! 

We will miss him but he will do good work in Wantirna!

One really nice thing happened as we were waiting for our Bush missionary to arrive on the bus.  I was able to see Elder and Sister McFaddenat the office on the last day of their mission because they are LEAVING!  They have finished their mission and they are going home. I was so shocked and I will miss them so much! I loved working with them so closely when I was lucky enoungh to serve with them for eight months in the Melbourne 2nd Branch in the city. It was also a little weird because the Sisters that started their mission with me (Sister Bradshaw and Sister Gilbert were in my district in the MTC and started their missions on the same day as me....August 13th, 2014) were leaving as well! It made me happy that I get to serve six more months.....I'm not ready to finish my mission yet!

Elder and Sister McFadden 

(Small world fact.....their son is my hometeacher in Fruit Heights!)

With all the transfer delays we ended up getting into our area to start our missionary work a little bit late and it was time to race to our appointment to teach the Clarke family. They are the best little old couple but they have the unfortunate habit of arguing with each other a lot. So it is really nice when we begin to share our message because the Spirit goes to work and peace is able to come into the home:) We shared a message on how we must do the small and simple things to progress and help others progress in the gospel. :) Then we were able to go over and teach Jason Harmon. He is an awesome guy and he is still battling with some of his addictions but it will be okay. We are just trying to help him build up his spiritual armour so he can get the strength to come back to church. 

Wednesday (2.24.16)
I have been able to form a very close connection with the Young family and the Robin family. They are the Mom and the non member dad and then the Grandma and Grandpa. It has been such a blessing to get to know them and have them see how much we love them. Elder Kim and I were so happy today when Brother and Sister Robins asked us to go with them to one of their other daughter's house. She is not a member and they wanted us to just talk with her. She has a lot of trials right now and she is also struggling with confidence and anxiety issues. We drove a little while up to her house and ate a great Subway lunch with her. I just felt so honored to be a representative of Jesus Christ and that the Robins would ask us to come and share our spirit their with her. It was a good visit. We really wanted to give her a blessing but unfortunately the circumstances didn't work out for that but I KNOW she felt the Spirit and just like it always does, it calmed her down.


After that we went for another feed at the Teremates. I love them very much! They are always so generous and kind to us! They truly make me feel like I really am one of their own children....which is so amazing! :) We weren't able to share a message with them but we got that in the following night because that is really the reason why we are here! Then we went and taught a lesson to Iain and Suzie. They are doing really good and we love to spend time teaching them more about the gospel  We just wanted to go over the program for Aaliyah's baptism and help Iain (Aaliyah's uncle) memorize the baptismal prayer:) Then we picked up Sio and went to Heather's house to basically just teach Aaliyah they same thing:)  We are so excited for her baptism on Saturday and so glad that her Uncle Iain will baptize her. After that we went to visit the Sili family and we were able to watch the Restoration of the Church DVD with them and help them feel the Spirit again! They are a semi less active family that we are trying to help come back to the gospel:)

Thursday (2.25.16)

District Leadership Council (DLC) was on the schedule for this morning and after that we had a baptismal interview to do! Our zone fell short of our goal of five baptims for the transfer but we did achieve three out of the five which is still great!  The Gippsland Zone is really improving a lot because last year January and February were really slow months for the zone.  After that we headed home so Elder Kim could finish his language study. It is really a requirment that we make time for his English language study. He is doing really well and he has good English skills but he finds it easier to understand people even better when he studies....it is really important and Elder Kim and I are committed to being 100% obedient to all the mission rules.  

Elder Kim studies English I study arachnids...Check out that spider!

At 3:00 pm we were able to get out and start doing missionary work and VISITING
PEOPLE! I was so antsy to get out today that I felt almost like I was escaping jail and I was finally free:) haha!  First, we went to see Monica. She is doing really well but she is just struggling to get to church because she is so tired from her work... but she is still so good and she knows the Gostpel is true. After that we went to visit with Melissa. We were working with her ages ago and right after we stopped visiting her she had a really hard experience because her kids were taken away from her by her ex-husband. So when we came around this time she felt like Heavenly Father was giving her a sign. She needs some help and we are really excited to help her and let the Gospel and the Spirit work miracles in her life!


We finished up by teach the Mattock kids, Jordan and Monique! They are sooooo ready for baptism and they are SET IN STONE for the 9th of April. Monique even has her dress and everything! :) It is so exciting!!! and then that was our day.

Friday (2.26.16)
Elder Kim and I decided that it would be best to go up to the Bush District meeting today instead of doing it on the phone because they only have them once per month. It turns into a road trip day because it takes about three hours round trip to get there. The missionaries are so isolated up there in the bush that when everyone does get together for meetings we all have to make sure to stay focused and on track because it can easily morph into a social event after the meetings are done. They are all amazing missionaries and I really love each one of them!

Selfie with the awesome Bush District!!!

It was about 3:00 pm again, when we were able to finally get down to the beloved land of Cranbourne and start our work. We had scheduled to visit Melissa but she was asleep so we took the opportunity to talk with her partner. He is really starting to warm up to us which is really nice:) We were scheduled to have dinner with the Falealo family which turned out to be a bit of a crazy thing because unfortunately there was no male in the home when we got there.She really wanted to have us come in and eat because she had made tons of yummy food. But as much as we wanted to and we didn't want to hurt her feelings....rules are rules and we as missionaries have to follow them. I said, "I am so sorry but we just can't"  She was so awesome and said it was fine and went in the house and brought our two massive trays just full of food! It ended up working out really great because it helped us meet up with brother Fesolai. He has four kids who are not baptized and he really likes us. It seems that he hasn't liked most missionaries so that is really good:) We are hoping to start working with him soon:) After that we went out to Daniel Angus' home, he is Heather's nephew, and he has a daughter that is ready to be baptized also so we are going to try and get her baptized in March! I know that through the LORD it WILL happen:)

Saturday (2.27.16)

We started out with Correllation meeting and an invitation for brunch and then it was time for Aaliyah's baptim!  You can always count on Satan working overtime when there are baptisms but he really went crazy with this one. There were soooo many things that tried to stop the baptism. But he can never win against the Spirit!!


We got there around 2:00 pm to fill up the font and it was pretty dirty so we had to clean it first and then fill it. So that was fine but then 3:30 pm rolls around and there is no Bishopric member! We had to wait another 40 minutes for someone to show up. Finally, by the time the baptismal ordinance was ready to happen....we found out someone had accidentally pushed the drain button and the font had drained about 3/4 of the way down! Then when there was finally enough water for her to be baptized her Uncle Iain actually had to do it three times because first, her toes and  then her dress came up and out of the water!!! The third time was the charm and Aaliyah was so happy to be baptized and it was great! The Lord makes everything work out in the end.  

Aaliyah's baptism day!!!

It was wonderful to have President and Sister Maxwell at the baptism!

After the baptism, our ward had an activity and it was GREAT!!!!!

Hanging out with some of awesome kids in our ward!

Missionary approved haircut......?

Elder Kim and I at the party! I just LOVE this ward!!!

Sunday (2.28.16)

For church today there was a multi-stake broadcast which was really great! It was really awesome because the Mattock kids (Jordan and Monique) came and Brother Young came too! Following the broadcast we prayed and told Heavenly Father we wanted to go visit to the Pattisons and if He wanted us to work with them at this time to please have them let us in and guess what????? THEY WERE HOME AND THEY LET US IN:) It was truly a miracle:) We taught Brother Pattison a great lesson and we are feeling very hopeful with the family:) After that we followed up with an African family we had met awhile back and they were home also!! We did a bit of How to Begin Teaching from Preach My Gospel with them and after that we were off to the Brugess family for a fabulous feed! We were so happy to be able to share the message of the blind man being healed and how it relates to baptism. There were some nonmembers there and it went really well with them!